Paper Economy - A US Real Estate Bubble Blog: Pending Home Sales: March 2011

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Pending Home Sales: March 2011

Today, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their Pending Home Sales Report for March showing home sales increasing with the seasonally adjusted national index climbing 5.1% since February while remaining 11.4% below the level seen in March 2010.

Meanwhile, the NARs chief economist Lawrence Yun continues to talk of market recovery while again griping about tight lending standards.

"Since reaching a cyclical bottom last June, pending home sales have posted an overall gain of 24 percent and demonstrate the market is recovering on its own, ... The index means modest near-term gains in existing-home sales are likely, which would be even stronger if tight mortgage lending criteria returned to normal, safe standards."

Looking at the confluence of truly hideous trends currently playing out for housing it's no wonder the NAR is grasping for any positive number but the writing is on the wall... housing is now within a notable post-government manipulated second dip.

The following chart shows the seasonally adjusted national pending home sales index along with the percent change on a year-over-year basis as well as the percent change from the peak set in 2005 (click for larger version).

Labels: economy, housing collapse, pending home sales

2 Comments:

I am not so surprised about this. We all know that our economy is just recovering. I am sure that everything will be better as year’s passes.

By aldrin james, at 10:04 PM
Who ever told us that our economy is recovering is either rich or lying. Yes, we have been in a recession for the last few years, but it still continues to this day for 80% of Americans. We are the ones who have to deal with all the unfortunate results of the problems and mistake of a few powerful people "in charge." All of these people are the ones who own huge companies, control politics, and are the boss of our bosses. There 1% of Americans own about 43% the wealth (latest numbers I found were from 2007). There are another 19% of Americans who own 50% of the money. That leaves a huge number of Americans. 80%, yes that is almost 250,00,000 people that have to work to receive less than 10% of all independently owned cash in America. There are many problems that we must live-through and fix; but it all starts at the top, and without making things more fair. It seems only things are going to continue to go downhill.

By JorgeValencia, at 2:11 PM